I Own the Dawn: The Night Stalkers by M. L. Buchman Read Free Book Online Page A

head.
    Dilyana hid her head between her knees. It wasn’t right. She couldn’t look up.
    It sounded like The Kee growled like an angry animal. Then she heard cloth moving.
    She stayed that way until The Kee made a noise, a quieter one.
    Dilyana peeked.
    She now wore a new shirt, but still the same pants.
    The Kee held out a hand for Dilyana to take. She avoided the hand, climbed off the other side of the bed, and sidled past The Kee toward the door of the tent. The last time The Kee had touched her, she’d grabbed and poked and thrown her on the hard metal floor of the helicopter. Better to stay near the nice man.
    ***
    Archie was barely paying even half attention to Big John’s latest tale, told between attacks on his breakfast.
    Archie hadn’t touched his own plate yet. It didn’t feel proper, starting to eat before everyone sat down. He shook his head at that and deliberately picked up his knife and fork, waiting as if he still sat in his parents’ formal dining room. All the timing of seating, setting napkins, and allowing his mother or the frequent guest to take the first bite.
    In the desert. On an Army base. Who in the world would he be waiting for here?
    He knew exactly who when he spotted Dilya slipping up to the chow line. Three steps behind came Sergeant Kee Smith. She’d hypnotized him, at least that was his current theory. To not stare at her ranked near impossible. To not watch the easy smiles that crossed her lips but so rarely touched those cautious eyes simply couldn’t be done.
    And then the next moment when the wall crashed into place and Kee Smith disappeared behind the shield of U.S. Army Sergeant. All except those dark, dark eyes.
    She fascinated him beyond all reason.
    It was a safe enough fascination, because he knew himself. He’d screw it up long before anything could come of it, even if he wasn’t an officer and she enlisted.
    So he allowed himself to watch the incongruous gentleness that the warrior shared with the child.
    ***
    Kee followed the kid to the chow line. She couldn’t even change her clothes in her own tent because of the kid. This was insane.
    The girl started heaping her plate the instant she hit the line and almost flipped it to the ground when Kee touched her arm.
    “ Medlenno. ” Great. Her entire vocabulary with the kid had been reduced to a single word. No, two. “ Medlenno, ha ? Medlenno , Dilyana.”
    “Dilya.” A sharp whisper.
    Kee’d called the girl by her full name in the tent two or three times, but she got the message. In public, Dilya.
    “Not Yani? Or Yana?”
    The girl shook her head sharply, suddenly sad, looking down. Okay, forbidden ground. Parents’ nickname probably, meaning a good chance they’d been decent folks.
    “ Medlenno , Dilya.” Then she imitated the girl barfing up her last breakfast, with a smile and laugh to let her know it was okay.
    Kee did it again, holding the back of her hand against her mouth with her fingertips touching and pointing outward. Then bursting apart as she made a ralphing sound.
    “ Medlenno. ”
    A laugh. She actually got a laugh from the kid.
    “ Asta .” Dilya nodded to confirm her understanding.
    The word for being sick?
    “ Asta-asta .”
    No, didn’t sound right. Word sounds often matched meaning in the languages she’d learned. And “sick” didn’t fit the repeated pattern, but “slowly, slowly” might.
    “ Asta-asta .” Kee dragged out each word making it slow and steady.
    The girl nodded.
    Okay, up to three words, even if two of them meant “slowly,” a private name, and a public name. Progress.
    She guided them over to Big John and the Professor who’d beaten them in. Dilya circled wide around John but settled in comfortable as could be next to the Professor. They looked awfully sweet together. This left Kee and John rubbing shoulders again. Wouldn’t mind that much, but they were on the same crew. Though while she liked Big John’s serious brawn, her mind was watching out of the